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Formula One in Texas: Final thoughts

Some organizers believe an American driver in Formula One would help attendance at American venues like Circuit of the Americas (above). Others aren't so sure. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Like debutantes waiting at the ball, hoping to be chosen for the big dance, America's young and potential Formula One drivers were in the house at the USGP at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. “Out of sight, out of mind,” they likely thought, and no one wants to risk that.

But does America really need a driver in F1? How many more people would have been in the stands on that Sunday had there been an American to root for?

The answer ranges from “A lot,” to “Very few,” depending on who that driver is.

It's the curse of F1 that any driver who can't simply write a big check to Marussia or Caterham must prove himself (or herself, which would be great for crowds everywhere) in the lesser series in Europe, as our last semi-successful candidate, Scott Speed, did. This means that the driver in question, like Speed, doesn't really race in the U.S., and can't build the sort of fan following necessary to attract a massive amount of fans, which could mean a massive amount of money.

And it was sad that Speed really didn't make the news like he should have. After all, he did manage 28 F1 races in 2006 and 2007, the first American since Michael Andretti's aborted and unfortunate attempt to crack F1 in 1993. Now he's in NASCAR, driving for the plucky but uncompetitive Leavine Family Racing, just trying to stay in the top 35 in points.

I contend that our last really appealing American F1 driver was Alex Zanardi, realizing fully that Zanardi is Italian, but during his Champ Car years in the U.S., he built an enormous fan base. Had a Zanardi in his prime been in the field Sunday, in a competitive car, I'm confident there would have been more tickets sold.

This is the tightrope U.S. hopefuls like Alexander Rossi, Conor Daly and Michael Lewis must walk–impress Europeans, but jet back to the U.S. as often as possible and show up at events like the USGP for some at-home face time. And so far, that approach doesn't seem to be working. Either the young drivers pass their “sell by” date, or they have been around so long the assumption is that if they deserved an F1 ride, they would have one. This is unfair, but this is Formula One, which is by nature unfair, as are most dictatorships. And like many dictatorships, this one is efficient.

Of course, “an F1 ride” differs by definition. Did it take as much skill for blonde, dimpled Frenchman Charles Pic to qualify his Marussia Cowsorth at 1:40.664 as it did for Sebastian Vettel to turn his pole lap of 1:35.657 in his Red Bull Renault? Who knows? Vettel isn't likely to step aside and toss the keys to Pic to find out.

The dream, of course, is to take a successful, well-known U.S. driver and drop him—or her—into a competitive F1 seat and watch the American driver go to town. Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal—won't happen. We need a young, confident, versatile kid with gunfighter eyes and no baggage and the will to win.

Like Kyle Larsen. But that won't happen either. Given the choice of being a happy millionaire in NASCAR over the next three years, or struggling overseas in open-wheel feeder series for a chance that may or may not come—well, it's an easy choice. Too bad.

WELCOME TO F1: The Circuit of the Americas got a few little reminders that essentially F1 owns the track leading up to and during the race. Those cool stars painted into the runoff area had to go—no real reason, we are told, except that F1 didn't approve them in advance—which apparently also applied to the small sign above the main tunnel, essentially a greeting from the DeJoria family, a minor investor in the track, with no mention of their business—Patron vodka or John Paul hair care products. But the sign was replaced Sunday with a generic and hastily printed, “Welcome to the 2012 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.”

That said, the track is leaving millions on the table by not having corporate sponsors—as we mentioned earlier, that 250-foot observation platform should have been the “Shell Tower,” or at least the “Red Bull Zipline Platform.” Eighty miles away in San Antonio, Toyota builds the slow-selling Tundra—hard to imagine COTA couldn't have as many as they wanted, likely plus cash, as the “Official Vehicle” of the track. I noticed fans on F1 forums saying how pleasant it was NOT having sponsor logos everywhere. Of course it was. Every race car looks better clean, without writing all over it. Just ask Lord Hesketh. But even for him, the money ran out.

FUELING F1: Shell provides the fuel for the Ferrari team, and a tour of the on-track facilities shows the care it requires to maintain a relationship like that. All the fuel for the F1 cars Shell supplies is refined in England and shipped to each track, either by sea or more often by plane. (No, not on commercial passenger-carrying planes, so no worry about sitting a few feet above a thousand gallons of racing fuel.)

After the race, unused fuel is given to the local recycler, who likely blends it in with the regular Shell stock. So if your Prius was running particularly well after a fill-up this week in Austin, that could be the answer.

The fuel is developed for each track, but differences are minor. At a short track like Monaco, the fuel would be refined to provide a tiny bit more boost at throttle tip-in, giving up a little at top end, not that important at a shorter circuit.

Shell also supplies oil for the Rick Hendrick and Penske Racing NASCAR teams. And no, it is not the same—each team has very specific requests. And this is interesting—Shell already has specifications for Ford engine oil from Penske, since the championship team is switching from Dodge to Ford power next year. Dodge oil, apparently, will not lubricate to Penske standards in their new Ford engines. Looks like Dodge oil worked pretty well in Brad Keselowski's car…

THE COTA DRAG STRIP: In our interview with track principal Bobby Epstein a couple of weeks ago, we broke the news that he is considering placing a quarter-mile drag strip on the property, as well as a dirt oval track. There appeared to be plenty of room for the dirt oval, but it was hard to figure, given the hilly terrain, where the drag strip might go. If local residents find the engine noise from F1 cars to be objectionable, wait until a couple of top fuel dragsters make a run down the strip—you'd be able to hear that in downtown Austin.